I am no longer pleased with Ubuntu, do to the Gnome desktop environment - I was a Unity user, but Unity is on life support now.

I want a distro that is popular - has a lot of people supporting it. I want something that allows me to install and uninstall things easily (like the Ubuntu software center was), or at least that I can use Synaptic Package Manager. I believe what I'm looking for is something based on Debian - I'm no expert.

I want something that works, out of the box/upon installation, much like the Mac OS X that I left Apple for when I discovered the Ubuntu that had Unity. Gnome does not support the robust drag and drop of files and folders that I'm use to, and I don't want to add extensions to try to get Gnome to do a clunky job at doing so. I want something with a dashboard, dock, or whatever it's called. I want to be able to drag and drop files from and to the desktop from folders located anywhere, to drag files to a USB thumb drive (that would show up in the dock/dashboard when inserted), and drag files from anywhere to the trash can (preferably located on the dashboard/dock). I want something that isn't dependent on decisions that Ubuntu makes - like Elementary OS is.

I don't like operating systems that act like Windows - where you click some start menu in the lower left or upper right - I don't like the Mint desktop system.

I need a distro that my 2 old computers would run easily. My desktop has an Intel Core i5 Vpro (8 gigs ram) and Hard Drive, and my laptop has the Intel Core i3 (4 gigs of ram) and HD.

Please suggest a distribution you think would fit my needs. I'll go to youtube and check it out. I'll make some decision to leave Ubuntu and it's Gnome desktop.

See this thread -- 4 or 5 distros mentioned at the end.

Am sure more can be found searching LQ.

If this is for an Apple computer, they used to have a different way of booting, compared to regular PC's, & you may need to search out an Apple specific distro, to be able to 'just install' Linux to it.

If you're used to Ubuntu, the best mainstream distro I can think of would be Debian (or its non-systemd version Devuan).

So why not just change the Desktop Environment instead of the distro?

(aside: the word you want is "due")

Ok, that sounds like Mint. (Assuming "based on" means you don't want Debian itself.)


Ok, so Mint, with the default desktop changed.

Or perhaps AntiX/MX Linux, with the desktop changed.


The key thing is: other than not wanting to be dependent on the changes Canonical makes to Ubuntu, your complaints all sound like they're with the desktop, not the distro.

Changing desktop environment without switching distro is a common practice and will not stop your system being supported.

1 members found this post helpful.

^ Thank you for filtering out the relevant bits.
AFAICS, all these criteria canbe entered on distrowatch's search page:

• based on
• not based on
• desktop environment
• for old computers

etc.

In Ubuntu you can always change the desktop environment so there is no need to change the distro.

I think it is more important what you do with your distro rather than which one you pick.

A distro is a tool, what makes the difference is what you do with the tool and not the tool itself. IMHO.